REVIEWSetc.

There is a scene in Tell Me Everything where a twelve-year-old boy sees just enough of something in a public bathroom to understand that his entire world is about to change, and Moshe Rosenthal shoots it with such precise, suffocating restraint that you feel the moment land in your chest before you have even fully processed what happened. This is a film that knows exactly where to look and exactly when to look away, and that discipline is everywhere. The setup is deceptively

Kolya (Aleksey Serebryakov) is a down-on-his-luck mechanic living in a small seaside town in Russia. He lives with his second wife, Lilya (Elena Lyadova); and his son Romka (Sergey Pokhodaev). The town's corrupt Mayor Vadim (Roman Madyanov) is plotting to seize the beautiful land where Kolya's house sits. The town plans to reimburse him far less than what he is owed, and he calls his old friend Dmitry (Vladimir Vdovichenkov), who has found great success as a lawyer in Moscow,

Nothing makes me feel more pretentious and pseudo-artsy-fartsy than a thought I had earlier today: I have really eclectic taste in movies. Now, do I think most everyone has an eclectic taste in film, whether they realize it to not? Yes, I really do. So I don't think I'm too darned special in this regard. But still... it's good to know that I can get my cinematic jollies from many different kinds of flicks. It's no secret whatsoever that even now, when so many other folks are

Sasha (Eylul Guven, Amy Zimmer) is the child of Hungarian immigrants being raised on Vancouver Island. Blue Heron cuts back and forth between her youth in Canada, and her young adult years. It truly is a personal, restless look at trying to interpret your own childhood. This film very literally tackles the dissonance between your experience growing up, and how you then look back on it as a young adult. Although Sasha is the protagonist, Blue Heron is incredibly centered aroun

For twenty years, The Devil Wears Prada has been an essential piece of media for anyone wishing to start a career in the fashion industry. The dream of working for a publication is one any girl would kill for. However, for Andy Sachs (Anne Hathaway), it is her desperate, final attempt to work for a reputable publication after graduating from Northwestern University. A journalism major, Andy looks down on Runway and those in the fashion industry for being frivolous and not bei

There are certain pop rock songs that you pretend you don't know. John Carney has built a career out of making people like you feel okay about liking those songs. He has done just that with Power Ballad, his first feature in almost 20 years. The film caught me by surprise on an otherwise unimportant day. In the film, Paul Rudd plays the titular character who is a wedding singer in Ireland. He had the potential to make it big in the pop music world. He missed the chance, made

I am going to tell you something and I need you to stay with me. There is a film on Netflix right now in which a CGI octopus named Marcellus narrates the emotional healing journey of a grieving widow and I watched every single minute of it with my whole chest open like an idiot. Alfred Molina voices the octopus. He is wry. He is world weary. He has opinions. I respected him enormously. The crying is entirely Sally Field's fault. She plays Tova, a woman who has lost her husban

Andy (Anne Hathaway) is back at Runway. After 20 years as an award winning journalist elsewhere, she's laid off when her company cuts its journalism budget. Miranda (Meryl Streep) is still running the show, but a lot has changed. The Devil Wears Prada 2 addresses traditional news media, how it's been affected over time, and the trajectory they are anticipating. The passion exists but the resources are limited. If you liked the humor in the first movie, you will most likely co

Messy, lost and broke are three ways to sum up being in your twenties. It's a time of confusion as you graduate from being a kid into young adulthood, forcing you to snap out of this carefree nature. Everywhere you look, it seems everyone has it together, and you are falling apart. This is how we meet Grace (Barbie Ferreira), living with her parents, unemployed, but determined to prove everyone wrong. A music critic with over 400 articles written at Spin Magazine, Grace is l

Let me tell you about Rob. Rob ( Will Madden) is the kind of guy who plans things. He books restaurants in advance. He reads the reviews. He wanted to propose in Paris, which tells you everything you need to know about Rob: he is a good man, a careful man, a man who believes that love deserves a proper setting. He has a ring. He has a speech, probably. He had a whole vision of how the story was supposed to go. What Rob didn't have was a girlfriend who was anywhere near the s

Reef Hawk (Keanu Reeves) has been riding the high of being in Hollywood's good graces since the age of six. Forty years later and he's still on top of the world. He's won two Oscars and has starred in three of the biggest franchises in film history. But what is most important for Reef is that his fans still love him. Throughout his entire career, he's always been very careful in constructing his public image. Sure, he's had his share of struggles, but he's managed to keep it

Lately, I've been on a binge to watch/rewatch the more recent Best Picture-nominated films that went home with nothing on Oscar night. I've even made some articles on what may have happened to them over on my Substack account. Since I had a copy of War Horse hiding away in my endless DVD collection, I figured it was time to open this bad boy out and see what I thought of it. Unfortunately, War Horse falls right into the same problems I've been having with Steven Spielberg fro

Despite its good reviews and word of mouth, I had missed Bart Layton's Crime 101 when it was in theaters earlier this year. It's not alone; it was simultaneously at the cinema with Good Luck Have Fun Don't Die , and I never made it out those few weeks to see that, either. My loss, I suppose, but at least it did not take long for the former flick to hit Hulu for streaming purposes. (As of this writing, the latter picture is only available as a rental, and it's still $20 just

Disguised as a sweet treat, Forbidden Fruits reveals itself to be sticky and messy, like fruit juice running down your arm. Jumping out of the gate with a balls-to-the-walls directorial debut, Meredith Alloway's influence from the teen drama films of the late 90s and early 2000s is willfully embraced to bring forth a new cult classic in 2026. Confidently walking the halls of an overly busy shopping mall, the Fruits, Apple (Reinhart), Fig (Shipp) and Cherry (Pedretti) sancti

(This review originally appeared in its entirety on scenethatreviews.com ) Hey there! Welcome to another review from 29th PÖFF | Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. This time I turn to the "Critics Picks' Competition" category for a film that just had its world premiere at the festival... China Sea (2025). Osvald (Marius Repšys) was a championship fighter who was nearly unstoppable in the ring. Though the television highlights we see of him winning a tournament in Japan is a

(This review originally appeared in its entirety on scenethatreviews.com ) Welcome back to another review from 29th PÖFF | Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival! This time, from the “Official Selection Competition”, we have a political scandal that threatens to upend an election. It doesn’t matter what the story is though. All that matters is time and patience in… No Comment (2025). Prime Minister Alma Solvik (Laila Goody) is locked-in and focused on the upcoming elections. The

( This review originally appeared in its entirety on scenethatreviews.com ) Who's ready for some reviews from the 29th PÖFF | Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival! First up, from the “First Feature Competition”, comes… Interior (2025). As we first meet Kasimir (Daniil Kremkin), he’s climbing out of a couch with a camcorder, while wearing nothing but underwear and socks. As he emerges from the department within the couch, he makes his way upstairs where he takes the camcorder a

(This review originally appeared in its entirety on scenethatreviews.com ) Welcome back to another review from 29th PÖFF | Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival! This time we are looking at a film from the “Baltic Film Competition” that follows a young child trying to process the complexities of a troubled home in… Fränk (2025). After yet another domestic incident at home involving his father, Paul (Derek Leheste) is forced from his home in the city to a small town to stay with

Mike ( Frank Dillane) is a street urchin in London, struggling to just get by. When we first meet him, he's chasing down a friend that's stolen his wallet. A scuffle ensues between the two men, one that is largely ignored by nearly everyone just casually walking by. Eventually, a decent man, Simon (Okezie Morro) steps in and breaks things up, even offering to take Mike for a bite to eat. As the two men begin to walk to a nearby bagel shop, Mike attacks Simon and steals his wa

Steve (Cillian Murphy) is the headmaster of a reform school named Stanton Wood. If the children were Steve's biggest worry at the school,...